My trip is behind me. Abaco was awesome, even with challenging conditions, it was great. I was there, in the skinny water, looking for fish and finding them and listening to the song of my reel. It is the stuff I think about frequently through the day.
And now… now I’m not fishing. I am not even trout fishing. I have no fishing on the books until at least the tail end of August. That may change, but not in any way that will put a bonefish in my path. Maybe there will be some trout, and the stripers will come back at some point and I plan on putting a few of those on my line, but my bonefish are kind of kicked.
There is a family trip to Maui and I’ve seen some indications there are, in fact, bonefish there and I intend on at least trying to find out (those HI bones are tough, aren’t they??). That’s what I’m holding out for.
I don’t have the heart to fully unpack my rod bag from the Bahamas. It is sitting in the garage, hopeful and unknowing and I can’t break its heart to tell it I have no more use of it, not for a while.
Maybe there will be some trout. Maybe I’ll make it up North to my rivers when they drop down into shape and the bugs start moving around, but that means leaving the Dr. on parent duty alone, which doesn’t seem too fair given how hard she works and how little free time she has. Maybe I’d fish a lot more if I were more of an asshole. I guess if I were more of an asshole I’d have a LOT of time to fish, but I’d be missing out on having a wife and being a father and I kind of dig on those two things, so I keep my asshole-ness in check, mostly.
Every glimpse of a river or a fly rod or a picture of a bonefish from Xmas or Andros… it kills me a little bit, a stab in my gut a little bit, especially when I see the lights on, the wind below 15 mph… the kind of conditions you dream of, waking or sleeping.
There will be other trips. There are many more years, I hope, of playing this game, so I’ll try to be patient, only partly succeeding.
Go… go out and fish. Chase, pursue, search. Let me know how it goes.
- If you liked the story above, check out these stories below
- My next trip (1.000)
- Prospects (1.000)
Tags: not fishing
Like ya said, you can always go catch some trout. unfortunately life does have a way of coming first. I’ve found a solution this year as my fiancee has agree’d to let me teach her to fly fish with me, which is exciting!
I agree, post bone fishing depression is horrible.
Oh man, I feel your pain. I was in the Abacos overlapping your trip, but we were on Elbow Cay. I got skunked with the guide due to heavy wind, cold, difficult shots, and only about a dozen fish sighted. I took the ferry over to Abaco proper, rented a car, and had a killer DIY day later in the week. I got some fish down in Cherokee/Casurina point area. It was not easy because of the wind but I made it happen. Anyway, I feel the same way you do. Since I live in FL I’m gonna try to get down to the Keys ASAP. We need a Bonefish withdraw support group….lol.
There sure was some wind when we were there. That’s fishing though, right?
Yeah, thats fishing! I know better to go from April to October (way less wind), but we have our firstborn on the way this June, so it had to be a winter trip. I enjoy the blog, keep it up!